After 15 years of allowing voters to vote without excuse, Georgia Republicans say the practice must end.
The Republican-controlled state Senate votes on Monday a package of legislation that, among other things, would limit postal voting mainly to elderly Georgians, the disabled or out of town on election day – one of dozens of restrictive election-related measures under consideration in state legislatures.
Supporters of the measures, which include allies of former President Donald Trump and those who resisted his false allegations of fraud after Joe Biden overthrew decades of Republican rule to win the state, say the bills are good electoral security efforts. sense. Democrats, voting rights advocates and civil rights groups say something else is going on.
“It is pathetically obvious to anyone who pays attention that when Trump lost the election and Georgia transferred control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats shortly after, Republicans understood that they were in a spiral of political death,” said Rep. Renitta Shannon. , a Democrat from Decatur, said during a debate on the ground about Republican proposals in Georgia last week. “And now they are doing everything they can to silence the voices of black and brown voters, specifically because they have largely boosted these victories.”
Grassroots organizers say Georgia, which has just elected two Democrats to the Senate, changing seats from red to blue, is ground zero for a movement that is happening across the country. State Republicans introduced at least 253 restrictive voting bills in 43 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, and how they control most legislatures across the country, at least some of the proposals are likely to pass. In the fall, state Republicans will also control the redistricting process much more than Democrats, and experts say lawmakers can easily crack down on Republican majorities in the House.
“A lot has been written about the fact that the United States will be a majority in color – 2040, 2050 – well, that’s 2024 for us here in Georgia,” said Nsé Ufot, a voting rights defender who leads the New Georgia Project, a group that aims to engage and register new voters.
Ufot argued that the proposals amount to a stark suppression of the voter in a state that had already erected great barriers to the ballot box.
“So we are talking about three years from now, four years from now, Georgia will be a plurality, whites will be the minority in Georgia,” she said. “And there are some people who are scared to death of it. And they are doing everything they can to break the machine or break the machine of our democracy to maintain power for as long as they can.”
Election rights experts and civil rights groups argued that, together, the movement adds to a national attack that would push colored voters out of the electorate and that federal protections for voting rights – such as HR 1, approved by the US House last week – are sorely needed to ensure equal access to the ballot box.
“These policies, to a large extent, would protect voters from some of the efforts we are seeing in states across the country,” said Eliza Sweren-Becker, a lawyer at the Brennan Center who follows restrictive and expansive voting proposals in the states. “For example, RH 1 would implement election day registration, a policy that some states are trying to revoke. RH 1 would implement automatic electoral registration, again, a policy that is a target of states like Georgia and Arizona, so really would protect voters. “
Although the White House has indicated that voting rights are a priority, issuing an executive order on Sunday with the aim of expanding voter registration, the broad reforms that advocates want are likely to stall in the divided Senate. Democrats control only a small majority with Vice President Kamala Harris as a tiebreaker, and many Democratic senators reiterated their opposition to removing the 60-vote limit to pass almost every piece of legislation, a rule known as obstruction. Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Arizona Republican Party offered a straightforward reason to defend the state’s voting restrictions before the Supreme Court last week: the measures help Republicans win elections.
The debate over electoral laws in Georgia was marked by last-minute hearings, hurried rewrites and furious debates on the floor. The Chamber created a Special Electoral Integrity Commission to forward the bills.
John Cusick, a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund who is following up on the proposals, said that last minute hearings for 7 am had been scheduled for the previous nights, Zoom’s testimony was banned and the hearings were conducted without further inquiries. copies of the projects in hand. .
“They were not open, transparent and inclusive,” he said.
The duels of bus packages and a small army of autonomous projects handle everything from the first hours of voting to automatic voter registration and mailboxes. Some proposals would limit early voting at the weekend in some counties, which is popular with black voters who organize “souls at the polls” events in churches.
“All of this in itself is a challenge,” said Cusick. “And then, when you start putting them together and see how they’re interacting, it just exacerbates all the damage, especially for voters of color who are being disproportionately impacted.”
Republicans say it is about bringing confidence back. Many Republican Party voters believe Trump’s lies that the election was stolen, according to public opinion polls.
The bill “was designed to bring our voters’ confidence back into our electoral system,” said Georgia project advocate, State Representative Barry Fleming, a Harlem Republican near Augusta, in a plenary address. on March 1st.
The Republican-controlled Georgia legislature, in particular the Senate, cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral system last year. The Senate sponsored hearings to investigate allegations of fraud in early December, inviting Trump’s lawyer, conspiracy dealer Rudy Giuliani, who is being sued for defamation for presenting unfounded conspiracy theories, to make fantastic claims before a subcommittee.
Once Georgia’s lawmakers pass a package of bills they hope will become law, the ball passes to Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who faces a difficult political decision if some of the more extreme measures are sent to his desk for his signature or veto.
Kemp, like Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, faced Trump’s wrath for defending the integrity of the dispute and not nullifying Biden’s victory in the state. Both said they supported voter identification for ballots sent by mail, while indirectly contesting or resisting proposals such as an end to postal voting for most eligible residents.
“At the end of the day, many of these projects are reactionary to a three-month disinformation campaign that could have been avoided,” Raffensperger said in a statement, saying that his office was reviewing the proposed accounts.
Vetoes risk infuriating Trump supporters, and could be a primary challenge in the bid for Kemp’s 2022 re-election, while allowing such a bill to become law would give Democrats ample fuel in their challenges.
Trump hinted that he could also be involved in a primary challenge for Kemp.
“Doug, do you want to run for governor in two years?” Trump said at a rally in Georgia in December, referring to Republican MP Doug Collins, who is stepping down. “He would be a handsome governor.”